Andrew let out a disappointed sound, then lifted his arms in the air. “Hey, I’m sorry, but it sounds like it’s just not your fate to sleep with her. Don’t despair. We’ll find you someone else to fuck later. I’ve got you.”
“No thanks.” I laughed. “I mean, thanks for the offer, but firstly, you know I don’t need any help in that department, and second, I don’t give a fuck about fate.”
“Think of it this way. The bro-gods must be looking out for you. It has to be in your best interest that you have no way of getting a hold of her. She might have ended up pregnant and ruining your life or something. It might not be fate, but you should be thanking the gods anyway.”
“Stop being so dramatic.” I polished off the last of my beer and got to my feet. “Let’s just get to the game, shall we? The alcohol is making you believe in those imaginary bro-gods again.”
“Don’t say that,” he said in a stage whisper, glancing up and clutching both hands to his chest with the corners of his mouth inching up. “I’m sorry, you guys. Please don’t punish him tonight. If he knocks this woman up, do you have any idea how much harder I’m going to have to work in the future?”
“I’m not knocking anyone up, Drew. Let’s just go.” I rolled my eyes at him again.
He just flashed me a smirk. “Fine, but when you do, don’t expect me to fill in for you when you have to attend doctor’s appointments and kindergarten plays, okay?”
“Deal.” As if I’d ever be that goddamn stupid. I laughed it off, though, because it wasn’t happening.
The day I either knocked someone up or asked Andrew to fill in for me was the day I’d start drinking heavily in the morning and calling my father every hour on the hour because even listening to him berating me for half of every day would be better than having to deal with the consequences of either one of those two things.
Chapter 9
Elsie
“What are your plans for tonight?” Beth asked, lazily turning her head to face me as we lay on the lounge chairs in her backyard. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the bright rays of the sun behind me. “I hope you’ve got something more exciting planned than me.”
“Unless working on ideas for my thesis qualifies as exciting, count me out.” I adjusted the top of my bikini, which was barely containing the girls, even though I was lying still. “This is the most fun I’m planning on having today. You?”
“I’m taking the food truck out tonight. There’s a basketball game and I’m going to park outside it. People don’t want to spend that money at the arena on a hotdog, but I’m cornering the market.”
“Good thinking. They’ve got to eat, right?” I smiled at my friend. “I’m sure you’re going to do great. Your hot dogs are the best, and the truck is starting to make a name for itself.”
“Thanks.” She sighed when she caught sight of the time. “Shit. I’ve got to get going soon and I need to shower off all the sunscreen before I do.”
“That’s my cue then.” I turned my face up toward the sun for one last minute, then swung my legs to the side and sat up. “Good luck tonight.”
We collected the towels we’d laid out on the lounge chairs and walked toward the door leading into her kitchen. As I deposited my empty water glass in her sink, she turned from the door to face me with a slight frown marring her forehead. “I thought you had your thesis topic locked in.”
“So did I.” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug and pushed my sunglasses into my hair. “But my adviser wants me to revise a few things before classes start back up. It’s a constant process until it gets approved by the committee.”
She scrunched up her nose. “I still don’t get why you wanted to keep studying.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure I get it anymore either.” I laughed. “But I started the program. Might as well finish it.”
“Good point, but is the work you have to do tonight essential?”
I shook my head. “Honestly? No. Chances are, I’m just going to end up sitting in front of my computer, staring at the screen and not actually getting anything done. Or you know, I’ll do research into something totally random instead. Last time, I spent two hours reading up on the different arguments surrounding whether unicorn horns have glitter in them or not.”
“The internet sure is a rabbit hole.”
“Absolutely,” I agreed as I reached up and redid my ponytail. “Why’d you ask?”
“Do you want to come ride along with me instead? I know it’s not nearly as interesting as unicorn horns, but at least we’ll get to spend our Saturday night together.”
“Yeah, that could be fun. I’m just going to have to go home to grab some clean clothes first.”
She waved a hand at me. “We’re the same size, and I have a spare shirt with the truck’s logo on it for you. You came here in jeans before we changed, right?”
“Right.”
“Then that’s perfect.” She smiled and jerked her head to indicate her hallway. “There’s shampoo and stuff in the guest bathroom and towels under the sink if you want to get cleaned up.”
“I know. Thanks.” I followed her out of the kitchen and walked straight to her bathroom. She always left toiletries in there for me in case I ended up staying over, but she never mentioned it. I’d even found a brand-new toothbrush in the cabinet last time.
I used to carry a small bag of toiletries in my car, but they had run out after a few nights spent at Beth’s shortly after… Well, they’d run out, and replenishing my supplies just hadn’t seemed important. It did now, though.
As my brain had slowly started processing the absolutely terrible shock it had gotten and working through the grief, I noticed a lot of things I’d slacked on over the last month or so. But as I came back to myself, I was noticing silly things like toiletries and feeling proud of myself for the progress that meant I was making.
After my shower, Beth and I met in the living room and took off. The truck was a surprisingly smooth ride, and thanks to Beth’s obsessive cleaning, it smelled like the pleasant Ocean Fresh freshener she used in the cab rather than a food truck.
“You going to look at more houses this weekend?” She glanced at me when we stopped at a traffic light.
“I don’t know.”
Red light spilled into the cab, causing shadows to fall over her face as she frowned. “Why not? You’re not backing out of the decision you made, are you?”
“No, I just…” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Yesterday was just a little overwhelming, you know? The reality hit me kind of hard when I was on my way home last night. I only have the money to move because of Mom, and I’d much rather have her. But I don’t and I’m never going to again, and now, even my own body seems to be ready to move on, and I’m just… not.”
“Finding a guy attractive isn’t moving on,” she said. “It’s called living and being alive. You are allowed to keep doing both those things, even while you miss your mother. As for the money, you know she would have been thrilled with what you’re planning on doing with it.”
“I know. It all just got a bit much last night, but I’ll be fine. I might take the rest of this weekend off and search again next week.”
Her lips moved to the side and the dent in her cheek told me she was biting the inside of it. When the light finally changed, she shot me another look. “Okay, but just don’t wait too long. You’ve only got a few weeks to find a place before the semester starts up for you. Again, if you need help, I’m here for you. Otherwise, just call Taydom.”
“About that.” I sucked in a breath and blurted the rest of my sentence out without taking another one. “I lost his card. I’ve tried looking his number up, but there’s no mobile listed, and I don’t really want to call his office. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t know who I was to return my call anyway.”
“You lost his card?” She released a low, injured-sounding moan. “How?”
“I don’t know. It was in my car. I was looking at it when I was speaking to you on the
phone after I left the open house, but then I put it somewhere and I can’t find it.”
“You’re hopeless.” Another moan, then she smacked a hand against the steering wheel. “But the show must go on and a house must be found. I’ll come with you tomorrow. We’ll find another one of his open houses and just talk to him there.”
“I already checked the website and there are no more open houses listed under his name for the rest of the month.”
“Damn it.” She bit her upper lip. “Okay, then you’re just going to have to call his office. It’s not such a big difference, right? He’s a professional. He probably returns all calls to his cell and his office.”
“I don’t know. It feels like there is a difference. Let me think about it. Like I said, I think I’ll take the rest of this weekend off anyway. Give myself a little time to adjust again before I continue the search.”
“I love how kind you are to yourself,” she said as she parked outside the massive basketball arena. “But I don’t know where you find the patience to give yourself time when you know you need it. I’m not even the one moving and I can’t wait until it’s time.”
I rested my head against the seat and laughed. “It can be frustrating, but it’s worth it. Anyway, what do you need me to do to help tonight?”
“I’m going to get set up, but there’s a lot more people here than I expected.” Her eyes tracked from one side of the huge field that offered additional parking to the other. “Do you know the arena itself has parking, too? This is just the overflow, which means it’s packed in there.”
I whistled under my breath. The field extended far beyond the well-lit edge of it near where we were parked, and there wasn’t a free space in sight. “It’s going to be busy when the game lets out. That’s for sure.”
“Yeah.” She rolled her lips into her mouth and narrowed her eyes as she thought. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. There are a couple of items on my regular menu we won’t be able to offer. I just don’t have the inventory to do it and it’s better not to offer it from the get-go than having to explain to customers who have been waiting in line that we don’t have it.”
“What if we just sold out regularly?”
She shrugged. “That’s different, but it’s still a pain. We know tonight that we won’t be able to offer a few things, so better to get rid of them altogether than to spend so much more time explaining that we don’t have them.”
“You’re the expert here. I’ll get the board out. You just tell me what needs to come off.”
“Thank you. You’re saving my life here.”
“It’s nothing you wouldn’t do and haven’t done for me.” I smiled and hopped out the door before either of us got emotional.
Beth and I extended the awning of her truck and opened up the window. Then we wiped down all the surfaces and prepped the ingredients we could. Once that was done, I set out a variety of sauces on a plastic table outside while Beth did a few last-minute checks.
The game had already let out by the time we were done, and people were starting to leave the arena. They looked like ants pouring out of a nest, crawling everywhere and covering every surface I could see.
“Hey, let me know which items to take off the board,” I said as I hoisted the second of two black boards that went outside the truck. There was another board on the inside, but Beth had already handled that one.
Loud music coming from the arena and starting up in many of the cars around us drowned out her answer. After making sure both boards were standing up around where I knew she’d want them, I headed back to the truck.
“Sorry.” She smiled. “I tried yelling, but I guess my voice just didn’t make it all the way to you.”
Plucking one of the paper menus from the stack on the counter, she crossed off several items with a pen she had tucked behind her ear. “There you go. If you could take those off, that would be great.”
“You got it.” I took the menu and headed back to the boards.
Her regular menu was written on them in her loopy, neat handwriting. I held up the paper she’d given me and erased the chalk lines containing the items we wouldn’t be selling.
“Elsie, is that you?” a smooth baritone voice that couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else said from behind me.
I spun around to see that I had been right. Taydom was standing there with a foam finger in one hand and a heavily painted fan at his side.
Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
His eyes crinkled with amusement as he took a few steps closer to me. “Fancy meeting you here.”
God, please don’t let me make a complete fool of myself again. I didn’t know if my prayer was going to work, but it was damn sure worth a try. I really, really didn’t want to look like a complete idiot in front of this guy again.
I did have some self-respect and I desperately wanted to cling to it.
Chapter 10
Taydom
Elsie looked surprised when she turned around, and not pleasantly so. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had looked at me quite like she did at that moment, with a mixture of shock, alarm and, worst of all, distress.
I, on the other hand, felt pretty damn lucky right then. “What are you doing here?”
“Helping out with the food truck,” she said, her voice wobbly. “You?”
“I came to catch the game.” I stuck my thumb out and jerked it over my shoulder. “You know, just like all those other thousands of people over there.”
She frowned, then rolled her eyes. I thought I caught the beginnings of a smile, but she wiped her face smooth too fast to be sure. “Oh, right. That’s what all these people are doing here. I was wondering what was going on.”
My brows rose. Smart, cute, and funny. “What can I say? We have these gatherings sometimes where we all come out to watch some grown men chase after a ball. It’s considered to be fun by some people.”
“Quite a lot of people, I’d say.” She didn’t try to hide her smile this time, and her entire face lit up with it. “You want a hot dog? I can help you skip the line.”
“Only if you have it with me.” I felt Andrew’s disbelief at my side but I didn’t look at him. This was a chance to fix my rookie mistake, and I wasn’t passing it up.
Elsie hesitated for a beat, then shrugged. “Sure, why not? Let me just check in with Beth. I’ll be back.”
Andrew waited until she had at least turned around to step in front of me. “What the fuck, dude? Why are you trying to pick up girls at the food truck? I thought we were going out for that.”
“She’s the girl from the open house yesterday. The one I was telling you about earlier.”
His eyes widened, the blue looking almost transparent in the bright light underneath the awning. “You’d better run then, bro. The universe has already tried to keep you away from her once. It won’t interfere again, so run. Now. I’ll distract her.”
I lifted my gaze away from his to find her stepping into the food truck through a small door at the back. “I’d say she’s pretty distracted, but I’m not running. The universe can do whatever the fuck it wants. I’m having a hot dog with that girl.”
He threw his arms out to his sides, a knowing smirk pulling one corner of his lips up. “Fine. It’s your future baby, dude. Not mine.”
“Fuck off with that.” I was about to tell him exactly where he could shove his bullshit when I realized I’d lost his attention.
His gaze drifted to the line forming in front of the counter, and he perked up. “Picking up girls at the food truck might not be such a bad idea after all. I think I see a tasty little morsel I’d like to try. See you later.”
Without a backward glance, he strode up to a tall brunette who was as skinny as a rail. I rolled my eyes at him. Hypocrite.
Elsie moved through the crowd toward me carrying cardboard plates laden with hot dogs, grabbing my focus away from the friend who’d be getting an earful later. She smiled and gently lifted the plates when she reached
me.
“Dinner is served.” She smiled. “Just don’t get used to it.”
“I won’t,” I assured her. “That looks good. Thanks.”
“No problem.” She passed one of the plates over to me and nodded at the curb. “Want to have a seat in our super luxurious dining area?”
“Lead the way.” A grin curled my lips as I followed her and sat down at her side. Tiny pebbles stuck into my ass and I was pretty sure there was patch of dry grass beneath me. The Ritz, this was not.
Thankfully, pebbles and grass had never scared me. Sitting like this even reminded me of home a little bit, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but it wasn’t all bad either.
“What are you really doing here?” I asked as I picked up a bun and held the open end closed. Then I bit into the relish and chili loaded dog.
She tilted her head, the lights all around us making her hair look like the black was streaked with gold. “I told you I’m helping out with the food truck.”
“It makes perfect sense then that you weren’t able to afford that house,” I joked once I’d swallowed, glancing at her so she’d be able to see the humor in my eyes. “Might have been difficult getting a mortgage that size on whatever one makes as a food truck helper.”
“Beth does really well for herself,” she informed me, but the corners of her lips twitched. “Not ten million dollars for a mansion well, but well enough.”
“Who’s Beth?” I glanced up at the brunette behind the counter, hands moving so fast I could barely see them. “I’m assuming that’s her, but who is she?”
“My best friend.” Elsie’s smile when she said Beth’s name spoke volumes. “She’s been a real lifesaver recently, so I jumped at the chance of helping her out tonight.”
A frown tugged at my brows. “Only to have me steal you away. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“No, it’s okay.” She turned that same smile on me. “It’s more the setting up and taking down that I came to help with. It’s small back there for two people and Beth’s the whiz at actually getting food out. I wasn’t planning on being back there with her anyway. I only get in the way.”
Give Me The Weekend Page 6
